Windows Phone 8 wins readers' choice award at PCMag; Nokia nails AT&T

PCMag has conducted and concluded their annual readers’ choice awards for mobile phones and carriers with a surprising winner. That’s right Windows Phone 8 with an average score of 9.0 for user satisfaction was the highest, besting iOS at 8.6 and Android 8.1. Not only that, as PC Mag points out a score of 9 or higher for user satisfaction is quite rare, giving pause to just how pleased customers are with their Windows Phone.

Following up on the news was Nokia for AT&T which came in once again at 9.2 (out of 10), ranking higher than Samsung Android (8.7), Apple iOS (8.6) and other Android devices. Although that was the only carrier which had a winner for Windows Phone, its 9.2 score was significantly higher than the number one phone on Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint. That reinforces the notion that AT&T Windows Phone users have a lot to be happy about.

Last year, Windows Phone 7 shared the spotlight with iOS for the number one spot but this year, Microsoft seems to have finally edged them out. As pointed out, user satisfaction here has little to do with the “newness” of the device and user experience as that information was controlled for, resulting in the same score (9.2) for Windows Phones less than a year old and all phones.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, a lot of people buy Windows Phone for the camera—something for which Nokia is earning quite the reputation for delivering. Ease of use and display size (or quality) were also big factors, though none came close to the winner for Windows Phone: Operating system at 88%. As it turns out, the biggest motivator for people buying a Windows Phone was the OS itself and not any specific features.

That’s good news and bad as Microsoft’s reputation is mixed amongst the public and they clearly have an image problem with their mobile phones. But once someone “gets” what the OS is all about, it just clicks and users evidently become very attached to their choice. The good news though is Microsoft appears to be doing better this last year with the Surface, rebranding and Windows 8.

While readers’ choice awards don’t mean very much in the real world, it sure looks good to see the underdog come out on top as it gets people talking. And maybe trying, new things.

The bulk of the phone buyers are the consumers. Most know nothing about phones. Its the techie fan boys that coax them into buying whatever. The majority will steer them to Android or ios. Its all word of mouth. When they use it, its beautiful, simple, and they can make WP the way they want it. No WP user will ever have a screen looking like another. That's why they love it.

Is it possible it scored high because all of us fanboys aka wpcentral readers, are the ones buying windows phone thus skuing the results? A big majority of current windows phone buyers/users are us the fans of the OS.

You nailed it on the head, to quote you very roughly "....when windows 8 clicks...users become attached to it..." I had a android for one month after having a win 7 phone then moving to win 8. I wanted to try android, I regretted every day, so I saved up and got my win 8 phone back. I am very attached to my phone.

Were the numbers of votes tallied between each platform equal? Cause if four people voted for Windows Phone and gave it high scores vs four thousand voting for IOS with high scores then you have something that's not really comparitive. You know what they say about statistics...

Someone needs to take those pictures from PC mag's site and follow up with the 2instawithlove hash tag because it doesn't matter how much ppl say that wp8 is not worthy enough for "top" apps, there are plenty of 3rd party stats and sites that say differently....the Lumia 920 also won a similar title with phone dog...

This is really good news!! I ask this not wanting to belittle the information in anyway, but does PCMag have a bigger readership of PC fans that might skew these results slightly....or is that completely unrelated as pretty much everyone has a PC and phones are a completely different thing?

The desktop and smartphone market are very different, a lot (most?) of Windows fans prefer iPhone or Android. In fact, given that Windows is the dominant desktop OS and Windows Phone's market share is in the single digits, it's no surprise that most Windows users don't have a Windows Phone. So no, I don't think the results are skewed.

For years PC Mag was known for having a pro Microsoft/ pro Windows slant. To say the sample its not still biased is ridiculous. Yes most people who own an iPhone probably own a Windows based PC, but the subscribers/readers of the mag(I think its online only now) are windows hardcore fans. Windows phone 8 is catching up, but don't take this poll in equal footing as a Consumer Reports that is more likely to follow a proper experimental design.

PC Mag is/was about PCs but for you to suggest that it's been shilling WP is absolutely laughable. They rarely acknowledge the existence of WP at all. These poll results are indeed unexpected and very welcome. You have no cause to dismiss them as you just did.

This kind of reminds me of all the TV Shows I like - Shows like 30 Rock or Parks and Rec that get rave reviews from critics, but because it isn't some reality show or competition it fails to gain the following it deserves...